


Lipstick

by extra_plus_ordinary



Series: After Balance [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Blupjeans fluff, IPRE mentions, Lucretia - Freeform, Magnus Burnsides - Freeform, Mostly Blupjeans, Taako and Lup, ain't that a change, pure fluff, taako - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 03:56:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12182430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extra_plus_ordinary/pseuds/extra_plus_ordinary
Summary: Lup meets the longest lasting lipstick to exist. Barry helps get it off.





	Lipstick

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A DRABBLE GUYS  
> 500 WORDS MAX  
> LOOK IT I TRIPLED  
> THIS IS PURE FLUFF BTW FEEL FREE TO SEND IN REQUESTS FOR BLUPJEANS AND MAGCRETIA

"Fuck.”   
  
Barry had heard Lup swear before. He had also heard her use that tone-a dark, ice-fire tone she saved for when talking about the Hunger, Greg Grimaldis and the person that ate her leftovers the night before (it was usually Magnus, but Barry had seen Lucretia stare at him dead in the eyes in the middle of the night as she slurped the last of Lup's noodles down. She was never caught.)   
  
But Barry also knew that he was walking past Lup's door at one in the morning, a morning which was smack dab in the middle of the cycle so that ruled the Hunger out. Taako was on cooking duty this month, and Greg Grimaldis hadn't been so much as whispered about on the Starblaster for the past decade.   
  
It was probably something else, and it would be doing Barry's eyes and mind a great service if he just ignored her expletive and scurried off to the warm comfort of his bed. But this was Lup, and this was Barry, and today marked the forty seventh anniversary to that day that he had realized that he was in love with her.     
  
So yeah. He opened that door.   
  
"Lup?" He stepped cautiously into her room, careful not to let the clothes that hung on both doorknobs fall to the ground. One, unfortunately, did end up slipping to the ground-a glittery crop top that Barry would've sworn he saw Merle in a few cycles ago when he went for his parlay with the Hunger ("John," Merle would chide them when they said that. "His name is John, for Pan's sake!"). Sighing, he bent down and picked it up, hanging it delicately on the knob once more before looking up to see Lup staring right at him via the vanity mirror she was seated in front of, her back to him. The only light that was on in the room was the circular fixture placed right on top on the vanity, casting her in an ethereal glow. She had no makeup on, save for her lips- they were coloured a hot pink and curled into a scowl as she raised a cotton pad to them, rubbing furiously at her mouth. "'Sup, Barold," She said, her voice muffled by the pad. She used her free hand to motion him towards her, and it took most of his self control not to beam like an idiot as he crossed the room and sat down beside her, nearly tripping on a makeup kit that lay spread out on the floor while doing so in his haste.   
  
They sat there for a minute, Lup rubbing at her pink mouth to no avail while Barry took her in. She looked like she had come back from a party; sequined top, fire red skirt-but this was Lup-she could have come back from the Legato Conservatory for all he knew.   
  
They had spent most of their nights there, when they had first started to learn their instruments and how to compose songs. Even now, when their performance was over with, Barry still found himself tapping out the keys on his desk, humming the tune and hearing Lup hum her own strain, their voices twisting, melding and converging until all that was left was song, powerful and emotive.   
  
He thought about this constantly, and even now he felt his index finger tapping out the basis of their duet even as he watched her watch him watch her try to take off her lipstick to no avail. After a few notes, she threw the pad down in disgust and buried her head in her hands, groaning.    
  
"Barryyyyy," she groaned, and he couldn't help but notice how his heart leapt a bit at the teasing, playful tone she always adopted with him. "I need you to make me a stronger makeup remover."   
  
"Uh," Barry paused, then reached for the clear bottle that was lying on the desk. "What's in them?" He skimmed the ingredients, noting some of the main ingredients. "Um. Propylene Glycol? Isn't that, bad? And parabens? What do they put in makeup that requires parabens to get off?"   
  
"Beauty is pain, Barold," Lup chuckled and reached into one of the many vanity drawers, retrieving a pink box from the mess of other lipsticks and boxes that littered the drawer. "And whatever is in this s-o-b is not coming off with a paraben."    
  
Barry remembered that box.    
  
In a stunning moment of clarity, he thought back to a few cycles ago, in a world where the cities were bright and the drinks were brighter, and Barry had been dragged along on a shopping trip with Taako. It was Taako's lipstick, he remembered, the one that he had bought for an exorbitant price off of a keen old woman who had told him that there was only one shade of pink exactly like this one, and that to use it with the wrong colours would be to sin on your ancestors. Taako had looked down at the box and clutched it tight to his chest, cradling it like a babe as the shopkeeper began to drone on and on about the lipstick's magical properties, and Barry had drifted toward an adjacent store for fried dough and a drink.   
  
And now Lup had it.   
  
"Uh, Lup?" Barry began, staring at the box. "Di-did Taako give that to you?"   
  
"No? I stole this shit, homie. Why?"    
  
"Stole-Oh, of course you did. Anyway,I think it's probably magical."   
  
"How you figure that?"   
  
"I was kinda there when he bought it? I left halfway, so I don't know the details, but it's not gonna come off by wiping it."   
  
The cotton pad beside Lup burst into flames.   
  
Barry jumped and eyed the flaming object as Lup swore but then quickly dissolved into laughter. "Oh, God, Barry, he's gonna be pissed!" She smirked, and his eyes snapped away from the burning cotton and towards the crooked line of pink that was her mouth. "I like, broke half of the stick of by accident? He's going to flip!" She chuckled and sighed, twisting the box in her hand. "It's a shitty colour anyway, right?" She looked up at Barry, who had become still as a statue, concentrating on her lips with an intensity she had only seen when he was about to dissect something. "Baaarry??" She waved her hand in front of her face and he caught it, sending electric spikes down her arm as he tugged her closer.    
  
"Bar-" She started but was cut off by a whisper of "Lemme try something," and she let him, feeling his other hand cup her face and their other hands intertwine as he kissed her, soft but firm and with a hint of the alcohol they had consumed just a day before, together on a grassy hill looking over the lake as they relished in their victory, their song, their love. She kept her eyes wide open, looking down at the man who she had studied so many times as he slept on their desk during research, or in his bed during the nights when sleeping had been too much to bear. She watched him kiss her, and in those five infinite seconds she realized that, for the rest of her life, she could expect these unexpected kisses that blurred the edges of her vision and made her cheeks feel like they'd nearly been scorched by a fireball, and when he broke away and opened his own eyes she realized that she was well and truly in love with this man.   
  
"Uh, sorry about that?" Barry was already looking sheepish, his cheeks looking like ripe tomatoes as he stared at the ground. "I remembered something about the lipstick that Taako got; it works like a party thing? It wipes off with another human's-well, humanoid's, probably- touch so I thought why not try? I mean I should have asked but  I was kinda caught up in the moment even though there wasn't really a-"   
  
She leaned back down and shut him up with a quick kiss, tracing his cheeks with her fingertips, connecting each freckle with another like a constellation only she could read. She pulled back and cast a quick glance at the mirror, ignoring both of their reddened faces and instead zeroing in on her lips.    
  
They were still that garish pink, yes-but the tone had lightened, and she saw that the corners of her mouth had almost begun to look normal.    
  
"Well, whaddaya know." She smiled to herself. "Taako, you party slut." She turned back at Barry, who was looking at her in a mixture of embarrassment and adoration, and she felt a part of her stomach melt as she roped her arms around her neck, pulling herself onto his lap.    
  
"Looks like we got work to do, Barold."    
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Note that I know nothing about  
> Parabens  
> Propylene Glycol  
> Kissing


End file.
